Page 35 of Inbetweeners
“I know, but it’s happened. Nothing anyone can do to change that. How did you die?” Phoenix let go of his hand.
“I don’t know. I felt a pain in my back and then I was in the corner looking at myself.”
“Someone killed you?” Phoenix asked.
The guy’s wife gasped.
“Turn round so I can see your back,” Phoenix told him.
Emmett sucked in a breath when he saw the rip in the man’s suit and the blood.
“You were stabbed,” Phoenix said.
“Stabbed?” Tricia whispered.
Phoenix pushed Malcolm’s body onto its side and saw the blood on the bed. He let him fall back.
“Oh God.” Tricia sat up.
“I was stabbed?” Malcolm gasped.
“What happened, Tricia?” Emmett asked. “When did you find Malcolm?”
“I’d just brought the children back from a visit to my friends. I didn’t expect Malcolm to be home from work. I came up to the bedroom to change and found him lying on the bed in his suit. And I just knew he was dead.” She started sobbing again. “But I thought he’d had a heart attack.”
“I don’t want to leave my family. How can they cope without me?”
Emmett told her what her husband was saying and her expression was a combination of angry and terrified. “I want the two of you to go away.”
“Once Malcolm has left,” Emmett said.
“It’s not fair.” Malcolm groaned. “They don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve this. I’m a good person.”
“You need to move on.” Phoenix took hold of his hand again.
“Why? Why would I want to go to Heaven when everyone I love is here?”
His wife sobbed harder when Emmett repeated that.
“Tell me something that will prove to her you’re still here,” Emmett said.
“I have life insurance. The details are in the blue box.”
She gasped when Emmett told her that.
“Malcolm?” she whispered.
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
“No you’re not,” Phoenix said. “Not really.”
“I don’t want to leave my family.”
“You need to go, then you’ll be ready for them when they join you,” Emmett said. “You can help them then.”
“But I’ll still be this age, won’t I? They’ll be old.”
“But you’ll still love them,” Phoenix said. “That won’t change.”
